UN team in Syria heads to site of alleged chemical weapons attack

Chemical materials and gas masks are pictured in a warehouse at the front line of clashes between opposition fighters and government forces, during a guided tour by the Syrian Army in the Damascus suburb of Jobar August 24, 2013.(Reuters / Khaled al-Hariri)

UN experts set off from central Damascus on Monday to investigate the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb, a day after the Assad government gave the “green light” to allow investigators access to the site.

A six-car convoy of chemical weapons experts wearing blue UN body
armor was accompanied by a car of security forces as well as an
ambulance, Reuters reports.

They said they were on their way to the rebel-held outskirts of
the Syrian capital known as Eastern Ghouta, the alleged site of
the world’s worst chemical attack in decades.

On Sunday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry announced an agreement was
“concluded in Damascus between the Syrian government and the
United Nations during the visit of the UN high representative for
disarmament, Angela Kane, to allow the UN team led by Professor
Aake Sellstroem to investigate allegations of chemical weapons
use in Damascus province.”

The agreement "is effective immediately".

Syrian authorities pledge to impose a ceasefire during the UN
team inspection.

Russia has welcomed the move but has called on all the sides,
“trying to influence the results of the investigation in
advance”, not to “make tragic mistakes”.

Washington is not satisfied with the agreement, saying that
Syria’s offer to allow UN inspectors access to the attack site
was “too late to be credible”.

"If the Syrian government had nothing to hide and wanted to
prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons in this
incident, it would have ceased its attacks on the area and
granted immediate access to the UN— five days ago," a senior
administration official said.

France also said on Sunday there can be “no doubt” that
it’s the Assad regime, which is behind the alleged chemical
weapons use near Damascus.

When asked about the Syrian government’s decision to grant the UN
inspectors permission to inspect the sites of the suspected
attacks, French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, replied that
“this request was already made several days ago” and the
location “has been bombed since.”

"From the moment the substance of the facts is established
incontestably, there will necessarily be a strong response,"
Fabius is cited as saying by AFP.

The French stance was echoed by the UK’s foreign secretary,
William Hague, who said that the international community “has to
be realistic now about what the UN team can achieve” in Syria.

"The fact is that much of the evidence could have been
destroyed by that artillery bombardment. Other evidence could
have degraded over the last few days and other evidence could
have been tampered with," Hague is cited as saying by
Reuters.

The Syrian agreement comes amidst a media build up implying that
Western powers accuse Assad’s government for the toxic gas attack
on August 21 that reportedly killed anywhere between ‘dozens’ to
‘1,300’ people in a Damascus suburb.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government has been
battling a 2-1/2-year revolt, said claims his government had used
chemical weapons were politically motivated and warned the United
States against intervention.

"Would any state use chemicals or any other weapons of mass
destruction in a place where its own forces are concentrated?
That would go against elementary logic. So accusations of this
kind are entirely political," he told the Russian daily Izvestia
in an interview.

"Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it
has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present
day."

Earlier Britain and the US suggested the Syrian government was
reluctant to give a UN investigative team access to the site of
the reported attack because it “has something to hide” and wants to give the
evidence time to degrade.

Shortly before the move, a senior US official said there was
"very little doubt" that a chemical weapon had been used
by Assad's forces.

The agreement comes despite the fact that earlier in the day the
Syrian Information Minister, Omran Zoabi said that Damascus would
cooperate "significantly and transparently" with UN
investigations but would not allow any "inspection that will
prejudice national sovereignty".

Meanwhile, Western officials stated they are considering “a serious response” from the international
community if it is proven that government forces used chemical
weapons against civilians.

On Saturday, British PM David Cameron’s spokesperson said that
both the UK and the US have tasked officials to examine all the
options.

Russia has warned unilateral military action against Syria will
have a devastating impact on security in the Middle East region.

Earlier, Syria’s Information Minister, Zoabi, stated that "US
military intervention will create very serious fallout and a ball
of fire that will inflame the Middle East.”

No urgency over Aleppo probe

On March 19, Syria’s state news agency Sana reported
“terrorists” had launched a rocket containing chemical
materials in the Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal. Opposition
forces blamed the Syrian government for the attack, which the
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says killed
26 people, including 16 soldiers.

The Syrian government called on the United Nations to investigate
the incident a day after the alleged attack, although
negotiations between Damascus and the UN dragged on for months,
raising questions about the efficacy of the probe.

On March 20, both Russia and Syria accused the UK and France of
attempting to stall the investigation at Khan al-Assal by taking
what Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin characterized as the
“the unjustified step” of widening the probe.

Syria blocked the UN team’s access to Syria in light of Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon’s insistence to “determine whether any
chemicals weapons were used, in any location."

Syria’s information minister, Omran al-Zouabi, told RT that the move to initially block the probe
was an attempt to thwart a “repeat of the Iraq scenario.”

“Their aim is, first, to cover those who are really behind use
of chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal, and secondly, to repeat
Iraq’s scenario, to pave the way for other investigation
inspections. To provide, based on their results, maps, photos of
rockets and other fabricated materials to the UN, which as we
know, opened the way to the occupation of Iraq,” al-Zouabi
said.

Syria eventually came to an agreement which allowed UN
investigators to launch an investigation initially limited to
three areas: the village of Khan al-Assal, and two other sites
that have not been disclosed.

On August 18, the 20-member strong UN delegation, led by Swedish
chemical weapons expert, Ake Sellstrom, arrived in Damascus.

“We said that these weapons were used in Syria, and Syria was
the first to inform the United Nations that armed groups used
these weapons in Khan al-Assal,” he said. “We had wished
that the United Nations had conducted the investigation
immediately at the time so the team would not find difficulties
gathering evidence.”